Georgia Injury Attorney Blog

Ragland & Jones, LLP, an Atlanta law firm dedicated to severe injury and wrongful death litigation, announces it has filed a lawsuit today in the State Court of Gwinnett County, Georgia against an Alpharetta dentist, Frederick C. Chuo, asserting that he sexually molested a 15 year old female patient during a visit to his dental offices located in Dacula, Georgia. According to the lawsuit, in October 2006, the teenaged patient sought dental treatment for two cavities at “Hamilton Mill Dental Associates” where Dr. Chuo worked as a staff dentist. The lawsuit alleges that after administering a local anesthetic, Dr. Chuo was guilty of various sexual misconduct including touching the teen patient’s breasts in an inappropriate manner multiple times. Dr. Chuo, age 29, was arrested on October 10, 2007 by Gwinnett County police and charged with felony sexual battery. On May 6, 2008, after pleading guilty to one felony count of sexual battery and two misdemeanor counts of sexual battery, Dr. Chuo was sentenced to an 18-month prison term plus an additional three and one-half year period of probation. The sentence given by the Honorable H.M. Stark requires that Dr. Chuo register as a sex offender under O.C.G.A. § 42-01-12.

Medical malpractice attorney Evan W. Jones is representing the female patient and her parents. He prepared and filed the lawsuit on behalf of both the teen patient and her parents seeking unspecified compensatory damages, as well as punitive damages because of the Dr. Chuo’s intentional and grievous sexual misconduct. In separate counts, the lawsuit asserts multiple tort claims against Dr. Chuo including civil assault and battery, medical malpractice, breach of fiduciary duties, violations of the Georgia Dental Practice Act (negligence per se), and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

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Posted In: Crime Victim Advocacy , Medical Malpractice

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On July 8, 2008, the Georgia Supreme Court granted petitions for certiorari filed by three physician defendants in the case of Lyon v. Schramm, 291 Ga.App. 48, 661 S.E.2d 178 (2008). That medical malpractice case involves a 43-year woman who claims that her longtime primary care and OB-GYN physicians failed to give her certain vaccinations and other care recommended for persons who have no spleen. Because of her asplenia and her physicians’ failures to appropriately immunized her, the Plaintiff claims that she suffered an “overwhelming post-splenectomy infection” (OPSI) that led to the amputation of both of her legs and both of her arms. The Plaintiff is being represented in Atlanta by Daniel A. Ragland, a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer at Ragland & Jones, LLP.

The defendant-physicians assert that the Plaintiff’s claims of professional negligence are barred by Georgia’s five year medical malpractice statute of repose because the patient first starting seeing them more than five years before the lawsuit was filed. For this reason, the trial court granted Motions to Dismiss on behalf of the Defendants in April 2007. Mr. Ragland appealed to the Georgia Court of Appeals which reversed the trial court’s decision finding that the five year statute of repose had not expired. The Georgia Court of Appeals reasoned that the Defendants had failed to vaccinate and otherwise properly protect their asplenic patient from the risks of OPSI on many occasions, including visits which took place during the five year pre-suit period. As such, the Georgia Court of Appeals agreed that negligent acts which were committed within five years of the lawsuit could support timely malpractice claims by the Plaintiff.

Both sides have now filed their appellate briefs with the Georgia Supreme Court. Oral argument before the Georgia Supreme Court has been scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on Monday, October 20, 2008.

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Posted In: Appellate Cases , Medical Malpractice

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In a case being handled by Ragland & Jones, LLP, the Georgia Court of Appeals has recently held that a Fulton County Superior Court Judge should not have dismissed the malpractice claims of an asplenic patient who alleged that her longtime primary care physician and OB-GYN physicians had failed to recommend steps to protect her against an overwhelming post-splenectomy infection (OPSI). On March 27, 2008, the Georgia Court of Appeals handed down its 4-3 decision in Lyon v. Schramm, et al., 291 Ga.App. 48, 661 S.E.2d 178 (2008). The majority held that Georgia’s five year medical malpractice statute of repose, O.C.G.A. § 9-3-71(b), did not bar the Plaintiff’s claims even though the Defendants first failed to start protecting the Plaintiff against the risk of OPSI more than 5 years prior to the filing of her lawsuit.

The case arose from a medical malpractice lawsuit filed by Atlanta Attorney Daniel Ragland on behalf of Betty Lyon and her husband, Henry Lyon, in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia on August 29, 2006. That lawsuit alleged that because of injuries she suffered at age 17 in a 1982 car accident, Mrs. Lyon’s damaged spleen had to be surgically removed in a procedure known as a splenectomy. As a result, Mrs. Lyon lived her adult years without a spleen which left her at risk for developing a life threatening fulminant condition known as “overwhelming post-splenectomy infection,” a rapidly developing septicaemia which can result when an asplenic individual is exposed to certain encapsulated bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, Neisseria meningitidis, or Haemophilus influenzae. These pathogens pose minimal risk to healthy and non-immunocompromised persons with fully functioning spleens.

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Posted In: Appellate Cases , Medical Malpractice

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